Ribeiro, Darcy

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Darcy Ribeiro (rēbā´rü), 1922–97, Brazilian anthropologist, statesman, and author. An expert on the indigenous peoples of Brazil, he wrote many books, notably the six-volume 1960s work, Studies of the Anthropology of Civilizations. Ribeiro served briefly in the cabinet of President João Goulart, fled to Uruguay after the 1964 military coup, and returned a decade later. His novel Maíra (1978, tr. 1983) concerns the conflict between the native Amazonian and European components of Brazilian society.